Was a beautiful launch, eh? <3

AMAZING! :D

That must be really awesome to see a live launch instead of just on the tv .

Ahhh I was looking forward to watching this live and I forgot about it. Oh well, it was only the last time ever an icon (THE icon?) of space exploration was going to be doing it's thing.

sob

Good bye america's space program. And GODSPEED ATLANTIS!

Shame it is the last.

I was so happy I caught it! I didn't even know it was happening today, and then I only managed to see it because of that pause at :31! It was so thrilling, my heart really pounded and I got chills just watching it on my latop screen. c:

Humans are capable of some amazing things.

Aw man, that last hold had the whole bleacher area gasp and hold their breath! Everyone was all HELL YEAH when the clocks started up again. It was seriously like being in a movie as far as all the suspense and last minute victories!

I wish I could have seen it! Ahhh... maybe again one day. ;.;

I listened to it live on the radio... and I wept... We have no plan, nothing to take its place... our space program is dead now... I heard the reporters call it 'bittersweet'... I fail to see the sweet. Yes, its a shuttle flight, that is in and of itself nice. But its the last, and that steels the joy for me. Sorry. We, as a nation, have lost our imagination, our daring, our very backbone. The space program is just the latest victim.

Coming up to the last launch has been pretty emotional. I grew up with them, living so close. My Dad used to work out there and I've got friends who still do (for now anyways). Heck, I did a couple temp jobs cleaning clean rooms a number of years back. I guess you could say I never really lost the interest, I was just too tied in. However, plenty of people around here wouldn't even bother to step outside for "just another launch" before they announced it coming to an end. Complacency was frustrating but I'm glad there's been others out there who also refused to cave into it.

Day before the launch I went out to a local business, Space Shirts. Busy as hell in there! Talked with one of the owners for a few minutes and he said, in reference to the excitement and the people coming out to see the launch, "It should have always been like this." Then he rambled off the list of places around the world who had dropped in the shop over the last couple of days.

Anyways, I think my point here is to say I hope you'll hold onto your own imagination and daring! The world needs more people who refuse to give in. Hope is never lost until you let go of it. :)

Actually what may go away is the "big Government" style, to be replaces by a variety of private sector approaches like this one:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/sci.....?click=pm_news

Scott

It was amazing. I've seen many launches, never thought I'd see the "last". Truly an end of an era. We all stopped at work today to watch it for a few minutes, even the people waiting on food were fine with this.

 alexanderkatz was there ...because of this picture I feel like a bit of me was there with him. Thank you.

Aw really?! He was in the area? Sweet! Its always nice to run into him at cons. :)

I wish I could have seen it. I was making models of the shuttles since I was 8. The end of a brave and amazing era

I am so damn jealous!! Thank you for letting me ride on your shoulder (metaphorically speaking; I hear you're a little critter, I wouldn't wish that on anyone) and get a little taste of this moment. One era comes to an end. What comes next? Something new.

Amazing shot. A lot better than seeing it on CNN like I did.

The arching sky is calling
Spacemen back to their trade
"All hands! Stand by! Free falling!"
As the lights below us fade

Out ride the sons of Terra
Far drives the thundering jet
Out leaps a race of Earthmen
Out, far, and onward yet

We pray for one last landing
On the world that gave us birth
Let us rest our eyes on the fleecy skies
And the cool green hills of Earth.

Godspeed Atlantis! Bring them home safe one last time.

This so very, very much.

You are very fortunate =] Be proud of your experience!

Hey, thank you for posting this picture. Not only is it beautiful in spite of the blur, but it lets those of us who couldn't watch see a glimpse of American history. ♥

i shit you not i look up at the news they had just start talking sbout this then i look down and see this i chuckled :3

When I saw that it went up on time, I thought of you and was happy for ya.

Very cool, thanks for your first-hand report, and congrats to yourself for having the opportunity to see it!

I managed to watch it live over the NASA web feed, which pales in comparison to seeing it while actually there but still great none the less. It brought back memories of me watching the first shuttle landing live as a child on television in the restaurant my mom worked at the time.

This time though I had a mixture of sadness and anger while watching it.

I tried to video tape it, but I realized halfway through that when I hit 'record', it didn't start. hit record again. Didn't star.t Again. didn't star.t Screw it, just enjoy.

wow, you were really close! lucky you to witness such a moment in history. i bet it was quite the experiance. shuttle launches. ive seen 3

Do you live around there and have been to many launches? it must be awe inspiring in the flesh. End of an era, its a shame really... Commercial Crew Development Program? Is that not just another program to give public money to private enterprise?

Yeah I grew up around here. :) I've never actually been -this- close to a launch though. We usually just went down to the river to watch from there. When it came out the shuttle program was ending I figured I'd missed my chance to ever get out to the bleachers but then I got lucky. I think I'm still kind of in shock that I got to do this. Its like.. was that even REAL. o_o

I was there to!!!! Heres my video of this launch! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3wk5v7C22k

Nice! Where were you watching from? (I watched it without sound, so if you mentioned it in the video I missed it.)

I think it was Titusville, not really sure tho.

Mother fucking Envy you I do

I'm sad I missed it, never got to see a shuttle launch :<

Mind me asking an idiot question? Why is it the last shuttle? Does it mean last manned thing in space? Or we got bored out there? :P

That's not an idiot question at all. :) I grew up around here and really haven't been sure of what's all happening for the most part either as far as the future. Pretty sure there are still going to be manned missions into space, though I am uncertain of the how/when/where/who's. The only thing I know for sure it that no Space Shuttles will be bringing people into space anymore. As for why they are retiring them, its probably a whole lot of different reasons and there's a lot of people on both sides. Some think it should have kept going, others not. (Most people around my area would have liked to have seen something new to replace the shuttles, myself included.)

Thats a very good but complicated question.

The space shuttle was due to be retired a couple years ago, but since we (united states) didnt have a new spacecraft ready yet, we had to push another couple years out of the space shuttle fleet to finish the International Space Station (ISS). The space shuttle is great for what it is, but it has gotten so expensivce to maintain and its use is limited. The Space Shuttle is only made for low earth orbit, and yu cannot use it for moon landing or interplanetery space exploration. It's a MASSIVE vehicle.

During the past decade, NASA and several civilian contractors have been hard at work developing the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (OMCV), which is a modern day addage to the Apollo vehicle which landed man on the moon. This is a new/great thing...but it's not quite ready yet. In the meantime, we're using Russia's space capabilities to move crew and cargo to the ISS. In the process, we're letting private industry develop the launch vehicles (rockets that the crew modules sit on top of). This is a new chapter in human space exploration; and the doors are now open to the future.

It does suck that the Space Shuttle is being retired, but now the general public can actually see and touch the insides of the orbiter and hopefully understand how profound it really is. And now we can look ahead to seeing man set foot on the moon again, maybe even mars and beyond. The Space Shuttle simply cost too much and didn't have the capability.


(Please excuse my grammer; long day and a night of boozin)

I regret I could not go up there today to witness the launch, however my friend will have the launch in 1080p HD 5.1 surround to re-watch on Sunday.

Wheee! What a photo! Thanks for posting this.

Wha a thrill to see a launch like that.

I'm glad that clunkjy old fleet is being retired (they were getting dangerous!). Damned DAMNED shame there is nothing online to replace them! (but then, maybe Jerry Pournell was right, and the French Foreign Legion will inherit the stars!)

Awesome. Still very jealous, but glad everything held out and they launched with you there today!

I missed watching the launch live by less than a few minutes D: but I caught the live cam feed of the external fuel tank dropping, which was pretty cool.

Pretty good shot of it. I was sleeping and it woke me up sorta, the wind was apparently blowing just right so it shook the whole house.

The last crotch rocket that we shoot off willingly. What are we getting neutered?

I wish i was there :""""C

i so wanted to watch a shuttle launch at least once in my life... guess that will never happen now :T

*salute*

I miss being able to look out my window and watch launches. It's sad that this is the last of the shuttles to fly.

The space program should never be anything routine.... It makes me sad that this iconic program has to fade into the background. But hopefully the future will be brighter with a new vehicle on the horizon. And space will be our future once more, I always dreamed of being an astronaut, to this day, I still look up and dream about what it would be like to leave this planet. I'm glad you got to witness this Arphie, I'm just sad at the same time you had to witness this, meaning what it did. We as a species lost that drive and imagination to another world when money took over imagination. But hopefully soon enough, we'll be back.

(sigh) Thank you for the beautiful image!

I overworked myself the night before... And forgot to set my alarm clock... I slept through it. I was so exhausted, I slept through the event I had been planning to watch for the past month or so... I was so angry with myself. I couldn't believe I did that...

Nicely composed -- even the exhaust smoke seems 'artfully' arranged.

It's a shame to see such a wonderful project end, but at the same time I'm excited to see what cool new space vehicles NASA or private parties come up with.

Oh man! I forgot you lived in Florida!

I'm so sad I couldn't make it to the launch, especially since my boss flew out to the Cape for a month starting the week of Atlantis' last launch...only a week after I started working for him.

But I managed to get all my travel clearances straightened out and made it to the Cape for the landing! I was sooo clooose to touching that machine, it was amazing!

I'm glad you were able to make it out to the last flight, you lucky gal.

Some friends and I ended up jamming ourselves into this rolling shitbox 1989 honda civic to go to NASA for the last night launch (STS130)... it was the same weekend as some Indy 500 whatever. We felt like we were the only nerds there. It was an incredible experience and I am so happy that we could make it. Kudos you go to go to this one!

I wish we could have gone to the last launch but tickets sold out almost as soon as they were available. I watched it live and my co-workers couldn't understand what was so exciting about it. Definitely a bittersweet moment watching her go up that last time.

Night launches were soooooo pretty! Hard to believe its almost been a year since the last mission. ;_;